A Midnight Snack
by Hintersly
Summary: James and Lily go down to the kitchen for a midnight snack. House elves, cats, chocolate, oh my! This is a one-shot writing sprint.


**Writing Sprint: I write a one-shot in one sitting and none of it is edited. I haven't planned anything, just an idea.**

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Lily groaned and walked down from the girls' dormitory to the Gryffindor common room. It was _that_ time of the month again. No, she was not a werewolf, she was, however, part of the female sex.

It was nearly two in the morning and she hasn't slept a wink since she went to bed. She had asked Madam Pomfrey for something, anything, for her period. A dreamless sleep potion or even a muggle pain reliever, but apparently in the wizarding world they can mend bones in a flash but can't help period cramps.

She walked over to the comfy couch by the burning embers of the fire place and sat down.

"AHHH!"

"Urghg."

She jumped up and looked at the couch. James Potter (the one and only) was sitting on the couch curled up with a blanket.

"Potter?" Lily said in a stage whisper, "what are you doing down here?"

He rubbed his eyes and put his glasses on, "I might ask y-," yawn, "you the same question."

Lily shifted from side to side, "I couldn't sleep," she said plainly. She sat down on the other end of the couch.

James nodded and sat up so he could talk easier, "Same here. Peter and Remus keep snoring and Sirius's sleep farts smell worse than Sniv- I mean they smell really bad."

"Mmm-hmm."

James eyed her for a moment. "Here," he held out something in the dark, "have some. Moony says it's good for _that_ time of the month."

Lily took it. It was a chocolate bar. "Oh, thanks. How does Moony know what's good for _that_ time of the month? And how do you know it's _my_ time of the month."

"Uh, well... you know Remus, always reading about books... and stuff."

Lily was too tired to process much of what he was saying but James noticed his slip and was slightly more awake.

Lily broke a few squares off and offered it to James. They sat in a comfortable silence eating the chocolate.

"Are you still hungry?" He said breaking the silence.

"A little... I'm kind of thirsty, too."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Not like that," she gave him a look.

"Follow me," He stood up and grabbed her hand.

More awake now, Lily said, "Potter! What- what are you doing."

"Shhh," he put a finger to her lips which sounds less awkward than it actually is, "just follow and be quiet. Don't want to alert Filch."

Lily pushed his finger away from her mouth and followed him out of the picture of the Fat Lady who was snoozing peacefully until they woke her.

They walked down the corridor and down a flight of stairs. James pulled out his wand and tapped shield of an armour stand three times. Lily was about to ask what he was doing but watched as the picture next to the armour stand swivelled to show a hidden corridor. James looked back and grinned.

"Pretty cool, right?"

"Right..."

He grabbed her hand again and pulled her through the corridor.

"Lumos," his wand lit to show where they were going through the tight corridor. They exited the hidden hallway and went down a flight of stairs to another secret passage. Down, down, Lily counted at least six flights of stairs.

"Almost there," he hissed. They emerged from a secret passage by the stairway to the dungeons. He walked past the stairs to a picture with a bowl of fruit. He reached up and... tickled the pear?

The painting swung to reveal a kitchen.

Lily gasped, "Wow, so right now... we're under the Great Hall?"

James nodded, "Yup, this is where all the food is made. There aren't as many house elves as there normally are because a lot of them are cleaning the corridors, common rooms, you know." He waved at the small gathering of house elves that had gathered around them.

"James Potter and Lily Evans," said one of the house elves in a squeaky voice.

"Hullo," James said. Lily waved. This was the first time seeing a house elf in real life, let alone dozens of them.

"What can we get for you?" The house elf said again.

"Hmm, something chocolaty. Right, Evans?"

"Oh, um, yes, please. As long as it's not too much trouble."

She was answered by a chorus of, "Of course, Miss," and, "No trouble at all, Lily Evans."

"Do they ever sleep," she asked James as the house elves left to get the food.

James sighed, "No, but at least the house elves here are given the option to."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"A lot of... a lot of wizarding families, especially the rich pure-blooded ones, own house elves. Many house elves in families are there for generations and have to follow orders no matter what."

"Oh. Do you have a..."

"No."

"Ah, ok..." Lily trailed off as she watched what appeared to be floating trays of chocolate cake, chocolate tarts, chocolate eclairs, and two mugs of hot chocolate floating towards them. "Why don't they wear any clothes?"

They were sitting at a little table the elves had set up.

"When you give a house elf clothes it means they can go free."

Lily pointed to her cheek, motioning that James had whipped cream from the eclair there. He whipped it off with his finger and ate it.

"Ah, I see."

After they had finished their food, they thanked the house elves to be answered with a chorus of, "No problem James Potter and Lily Evans."

They crept out of the kitchens and towards the hidden passage where they were about ten minutes before.

James grabbed her hand and held his finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet. The pair listened intently. Lily didn't know what they were listening for but she was also never out after curfew unless she was on prefect duty. But if she wasn't on refect duty then she could get in trouble for being out of bed and she didn't want that.

Suddenly, James grabbed her waist and pushed her against a wall.

"Po-" she tried to say, but couldn't finish because of a hand clamped over her mouth. James whipped his invisibility cloak out of nowhere and covered himself and Lily in the cloak. Lily looked from side to side, down the length of the corridor looking for what made James hide them. Then she saw him. Flich and Mrs. Norris came around the corner.

"What is it, my precious?" Filch said, "Students out of bed?"

Mrs. Norris gave a little _mreow_ and began sniffing around. James and Lily's eyes widened as they watched the cat sniff closer and closer. Lily pursed her lips. It wouldn't be fair if she got caught because of her period. She reacher around James and pulled his wand out from where it was tucked into his pyjama pants waistband. She left hers in the dorm.

He raised his eyebrows. Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head.

She aimed the wand to a table holding a vase of flowers at the other end of the corridor and made a small _swish and flick_ and in her mind said _wingardium leviosa_. The table hovered for a second and fell back to the ground, causing the vase to smash to the ground.

Mrs. Norris hissed and turned to look at where the noise came from. The pair, Filch and his cat, ran to the other end of the hall and around the corner with Filch yelling "PEEVES!"

James and Lily hurried out from under the cloak and towards the hidden passage. The ran up to the Gryffindor common room.

"Dragon scales," they said in unison and both catching their breath.

"Correct," the Fat Lady swung open slowly.

They two walked in as if it were mid day and nothing had happened.

"Well, er..." Lily looked around at anything but James, "Here's your wand." She held it out to him.

"Thanks."

"Yeah."

"Well..."

"Goodnight, James."

"Goodnight, Lily."

Lily hesitated for a second and reached up on her toes to give James a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Night," and with that, she ran upstairs to the girls' dorm.

And everyone in Gryffindor tower heard a "YESS!" From the boys seventh year dormitory.


End file.
